Week 2 Eagles Power Rankings Roundup- Saquon Gives Eagles A Boost

Eagles left week 1 with a win. It was not pretty, but unlike 16 teams, they are 1-0. There were some things to be concerned about, but also plenty to be excited about. But how is the national media reacting to them beating the Packers? Let's take a look at the week 2 Eagles power rankings.

"Barkley stole the show in Brazil, rushing for over 100 yards and scoring three times against the Packers -- twice on the ground and once through the air. He became the second player in franchise history to score three touchdowns in his first game, joining Terrell Owens, who did it in 2004."

We all thought Barkley would be good. I did not expect his impact to be this great in week 1 though. But having that monster of a RB, to go with AJ Brown and DeVonta Smith is going to make this offense very dangerous. They didn't even play that well as a unit, but they still scored 34 points.

"The New York Giants didn’t open the season until Sunday and somehow they got embarrassed on Friday night in South America. Former Giants running back Saquon Barkley saved Jalen Hurts from a tough day by scoring three touchdowns, two on the ground, to go with 109 yards rushing, and one through the air."

The Giants' off-season Hard Knocks was hilarious. Seeing Joe Schoen flounder about the Barkley situation was great. Friday night made it even funnier. I immediately thought of John Mara saying he will have trouble sleeping if he signs with the Eagles. Hope he had a good night of sleep on Friday.

"The offense showed up in a big way against the Packers in Brazil, but the defense still had some issues. They have to cut down on the big plays."

I went into the game more down on the defense than most. But I actually came away feeling a bit better about it, which is odd to say. They were certainly not perfect. The pass rush off the end is a big problem. But they got multiple big stops in crucial moments. Including holding them to a field goal of 3 of the 4 Red Zone trips.

"The Eagles scored an absolute must-have victory in the toughest of spots—a slick field thousands of miles from home on a weird night followed by strange travel circumstances–-and for at least one week stiff-armed concerns that they were continuing an end-of-season freefall that nearly prompted a coaching change."

The circumstances around the game make me a bit more likely to forgive the slopiness. It was a tough trip, against a good team, on a bad field, in week 1. To me, it did not feel like last year. One they were having fun, which was not the case for those ugly wins last year. But also there were really good takeaways. If those issues persist, it will be an issue. But I can't overreact to slopiness in week 1.

"But with Baun, it was an even bigger surprise considering he’s playing a new position: off-the-ball linebacker. Baun did some of that in New Orleans, but his 15-tackle, two-sack performance showed that new defensive coordinator Vic Fangio’s instincts on Baun adapting roles proved correct."

Barkley was not too surprising. but I was shocked by how good Baun looked. I did not buy it from the start when the Eagles were pumping up Baun as the best linebacker. How could a guy who was a rotational pass rusher with the Saints suddenly be a starting-caliber inside linebacker? But 1 week in, he was amazing.

"When the Eagles signed Saquon Barkley, it was surprising. Mostly because the Eagles have been one of the teams leading the charge in devaluing running backs, putting together RB rooms of cheap but effective options. Now we see why Philadelphia paid up. If what we saw in Week 1 is what we can expect from Barkley, that added dimension will change the Eagles' offense."

I was on that bandwagon saying RBs are not worth it. Maybe it needs to be adjusted to only elite RBs are worth it. Because McCaffrey is obviously worth it for the Niners, and it looks like Barkley is for the Eagles. If a RB can impact the game in both the run game and pass game, they can change an offense.

"Given the odd circumstances of Friday's game, Week 1 went about as well as the Eagles could have hoped. Now it's a matter of building on that offensive success in Week 2 against the Atlanta Falcons."

Yep. Were there problems? Absolutely. But most of the 32 teams had problems in week 1. It was an odd game vs a tough team and they survived. As long as they improve on those mistakes, it will be fine. There were really positive signs to go with some of those issues.

When the Eagles got back on the plane to come home from Brazil, they did so as a 1-0 team. It might not have been pretty, at times it was downright ugly, but they beat a team they will likely be battling with for seeding in the NFC. How much stock should we put into the Eagles win in Brazil though?

After what happened last season though, ugly wins are a bit of a sore subject. They won 10 games in ugly fashion last season, eventually going into the 12th game 10-1. Many predicted it would all fall apart, others, myself included, just said a win is all that matters. The people in the former category ended up being right. There was a sickness behind that ugliness, and it eventually hurt them.

Related: Eagles Win Sloppy Game On Back Of Saquon Barkley

After starting 10-1, the Eagles finished 11-6. Then they got blown out by the Bucs in the playoffs. Nick Sirianni nearly lost his job. He kept it but with a lot of changes. He no longer ruins the offense, Kellen Moore does. Now the Eagles are running a whole new system, and Nick Sirianni is the "CEO Head Coach."

So the ugliness of course has some people worried after the week 1 win. Can you blame them? We dealt with it last year and it went poorly. It is hard to have patience through more ugliness again this season. But is it the same kind of ugliness we saw last season?

Let's take a deeper look at the game to see what the reasons for that ugliness were, and how they still managed to pull out the win. Should we be happy they got on that plane for the long flight back home as a 1-0 team? Or should we be worried that some of the issues that led to that ugliness will carry into the season, and eventually cost them wins down the road?

Let's start with the fact that it was not your typical trip. They weren't driving up the turnpike, flying to Dallas, or even flying cross country for a West Coast road trip. Those trips would all be easy compared to the flight to Sao Paulo. The flight from Philly to Sao Paulo took about 10 hours and traveled 4,795 miles. For reference, a Flight to Los Angeles and back would be 4,776 miles, and take just over 10 hours. Not one way, round trip. A flight from Philly to London takes about 7 hours, and you travel 3,545 miles.

This is one of the most brutal trips a team has ever had to take. Combine that with it being week 1, and the field being terrible, sloppiness is not surprising. That is not an excuse, it is just acknowledging the situation. The Packers went through it too, in fact their trip was e. Most people assume the Packers will be a great team, and they looked worse than the Eagles. At least the Eagles survived to learn from that mistake. The Packers not only lost, but Jordan Love will now miss a few weeks. We will see over the next few weeks how much the trip had to do with it. Maybe nothing, maybe everything. But these International games tend to be a bit sloppy. And this trip was worse than almost any other in NFL history.  

Going into the game, we were not sure what to think of Mekhi Becton. he had never played RG before, and he was coming off a bad year with the Jets. He came into camp and beat out Tyler Steen pretty easily for the job. But looking good in camp is different from looking good in a game. And Becton got a tough test in week 1 vs Packers DT Kenny Clark, a 3-time Pro Bowler.

He gave up 0 sacks, 0 QB hits, 0 Pressures, 0 Hurries. He went up against a great player and shut him down. We also saw him get into the 2nd level on run blocks multiple times. The Eagles ran the ball to the RG 12 times Friday Night. Per Next Gen Stats, those carries went for 54 yards and a TD. It was a great first impression. RG was the biggest question mark on this O-Line. He was tremendous in week 1.

Likewise, Cam Jurgens allowed 0 sacks and only 1 pressure from under center. Cam did have some snap issues. But that is something that is to be expected at first. Kelce had a few bad snaps early in his career too. We can't expect Jurgens to immediately be as good at snapping the ball as Kelce was at the end of his career.

Mekhi Becton was perfect though. Something Eagles fans can be very encouraged by.

I used 0 to make a positive point about the Eagles, now I will use 0 again to make a criticism. Bryce Huff does not only wear the number 0, it also defines his impact on the game. 0 sacks, 0 pressures.Some of that we can chalk up to the poor field conditions. On Jayden Reed's long TD, you will see him slip coming off the edge. it is also only 1 week, far better players than Huff have had weeks where they disappear.

But maybe more concerning than his lack of production, is how few snaps he played. The big knock on him was that he was a part-time player in New York. He played under 50% of the snaps there, and only in pass-rush situations. People worried if he could be a full-time player. Vic Fangio doesn't seem to think so yet, because Huff only played 45% of the snaps. Josh Sweat, Brandon Graham, and Nolan Smith all played more snaps than Huff. Milton Williams, a backup DT, played only 2 snaps fewer than him.

We can give him the pass for 1 off week on a bad field on a tough road trip. But the Eagles showing so little trust in him that he is 4th among Edge rushers in snaps is a concern for me. They need him to be an every-down player. He came here to be the Haason Reddick replacement. Edge Rush was already the biggest concern on this defense, Huff being a part-time player in week 1, takes that concern to the next level.

A big thing last year was how much the Eagles' offense struggled vs the blitz. They had no answers, and by the end of the season, teams were blitzing Hurts relentlessly. Hurts was not without fault, but I maintain that it was more on the Eagles coaches, specifically Nick Sirianni who designed the offense, than on Hurts himself. They simply did not give Hurts the tools to combat the blitz.

Cut to week 1 this year, with Kellen Moore in charge of the offense, and it was night and day. He finished 6/7 with 91 yards against the blitz, per Next Gren Stats. He was nearly perfect when blitzed.

He had his issues in the game. Those 2 interceptions were terrible decisions by him. But we saw him be great in what many considered his greatest weakness last year. That is a reason for optimism.

The lack of motion in the Eagles' offense last season was a talking point all year long. Sirianni continually denied the importance of motion, and Eagles used motion on only 35.1% of their plays, the lowest number in the league.

Now Moore is in charge. Under his leadership, they motioned on 65.8% of the plays. A big jump, but even more important is what the Eagles did on those plays. Jalen Hurts was 15 of 21 with 212 yards and 2 TDs on plays with motion. Meanwhile, he was 5 of 13 with 2 interceptions when the play had no motion. So pretty much every good pass play you watched had motion, and every bad pass play did not.

The defense had its issues Friday Night. They got beat badly on a few plays, leading to multiple long TDs. But where they impressed was in the Red Zone. The Packers got into the Red Zone 4 times. They started in the Red Zone after a turnover twice. The Eagles allowed just 1 TD in the Red Zone. A success rate of 75%.

You do not necessarily need an elite defense to win the Super Bowl. It is obviously great to have, but teams have one with offenses that are just ok, see Eagles in 2017. But your defense does need to be elite at something. They need to be elite at getting after the QB, getting takeaways, or something.

It is only 1 week, but the Eagles red Zone defense looked great. That is something you can build on. They need to cut down the big plays, and they need to get more pressure, especially off the edge. But you can win games by just holding teams to field goals. That is 12 points they kept off the board. The difference between a 5-point win, and losing by a TD.

A few people on defense are getting their flowers after week 1. Quinyon Mitchell is getting praise for an impressive debut. People have lauded Zack Baun, who looked great. But Slay deserves his flowers too. People kind of take him for granted, but even at 33 years old, he is still an elite corner.

Slay allowed 1 catch all game long. They hardly threw his way all game long. That is the type of thing I like to see from my CB1, that they are so shutdown the ball is not even thrown their way. It is why with many great corners, you see their takeaways go down. Teams stop throwing their way. Slay took his side of the field out of the game. I think in general Slay gets underrated in Philly. But he was great in week 1.